Inspired by Mr. E of Tennessee

Mr. E you have inspired me! I am borrowing "Mayor Project" your idea for Youth Art Month in March!! We are going to call our program “March into Youth Art Month”! I love the idea you had about getting political figures involved to bring attention to the arts.   We are thinking of kicking off the day with an assembly which a handful of students would play an instrument or hold up a piece of artwork and say why the fine arts program is important to them.  After that we would like to have a local artist, musician, or actor come in and talk about how their grades school art program influenced them.   Then it is off to the classrooms… our visitors will participate with a class in an art and music lesson. It just so happens that our school is putting on a play in March so we will get to show that off a little as well.

 I know the program will bring a positive light to the art program in our district and our school.  This relates to another one of Mr. E’s posts…attending conferences at the state level. I attended the NJ Art Educators Conference a few weeks ago and there were two main ideas I took away from the conference.  The first was that we as art teachers need to teach but also advocate! We need to get the message out that our art programs are important! The second message was teaching art skills for the 21^st century.  The  4C’s of Art Education skills are Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity and innovation . The basic idea is preparing students with these concepts and skills are critical for a student readiness.

I am excited to prepare for this program and I think that it will be well received! It is a win win on all levels. The kids, our program, our district, and let’s be honest me…..we all benefit!  As we prepare for this program and promote the fine arts I am interest to hear if anyone else has done anything like this.  What programs do you have at your schools to promote fine arts?

Lastly to Mr. E.... thanks for insipring me!!